Raft, hike, or paraglide: eight hotels that are an adventure to get to

Travel by sea tractor to: Burgh Island Hotel, Devon

Agatha Christie wrote two of her murder mysteries at Burgh Island Hotel, which seems appropriate given the hotel’s remote and slightly eerie location on a 10-acre tidal island off the coast of south Devon, by Bigbury-on- Sea. Cut off from the mainland twice a day, at high tide arriving guests are ferried across in an elevated sea tractor, and at low tide, in a Land Rover, or you could walk across the sand. Once there, getting stranded at the hotel has its benefits: the island’s only pub, the Pilchard Inn, is the perfect place to while away a few hours. Meanwhile, dinner at the Art Deco-style hotel is a formal affair, with anyone not in black-tie confined to eat in the breakfast room. You have been warned.